Dave Coulier Reveals He’s Going to Be a Grandfather amid Cancer Diagnosis: 'There's a Lot to Look Forward to’ (Exclusive)

Dave Coulier is appreciating the little moments amid his cancer diagnosis. 

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Full House actor, 65, opens up about how he’s been leaning on family and friends after learning he has stage 3 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in October. 

While he notes that his diagnosis has been “a really fast roller coaster ride of a journey,” he adds that his wife Melissa Bring and son Luc have been his biggest motivations as he undergoes chemotherapy, especially after seeing their reaction to his cancer news. 

“I looked at how those words affected [my wife] and I thought, ‘You know what? I'm going to be strong throughout this, not just for me, but I'm going to be strong for her,’ ” he says. 

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He adds that telling his son Luc, 33, was especially “tough” as he’s currently expecting his first baby, a boy, with his wife Alex, making Coulier a grandpa for the first time.

As his first grandchild is due in March, a month after Coulier is expected to finish chemotherapy, he notes “there's a lot to look forward to” in the months to come, including introducing his future grandson to all his favorite hobbies, including hockey and airplanes. 

“You talk about an apple not falling far from the tree. My son Luc plays hockey three days a week. I used to take him up flying with me when he was a baby, and now he's a pilot for FedEx,” he says of his son, whom he shares with ex-wife Jayne Modean.

Amid his cancer journey, Coulier says he’s been given a new perspective on life.

“We all have choices in life,” he notes. “You can laugh through the tough times and try and see the glass half full or you can go the opposite direction, which doesn't really help anything. And so I made it — the choice was kind of made for me — you're going to get through this, but you're going to help some other people along the way.” 

Despite being “stunned” by his cancer diagnosis, he says he eventually found himself “remarkably calm with whatever the outcome was going to be.” 

“I don't know how to explain it, but there was an inner calm about all of it,” he says, noting that his own family’s experiences with cancer inspired him, including his late mother, sister and niece. 

“They really instilled that in me and inspired me in a way because they were magnificent going through what they went through, and I just thought, ‘I'm okay with this too. I've had an incredible life on a journey with incredible people around me, and I'm okay.’ It does change perspective for sure. All of the cliches start like, ‘Don't sweat the small stuff,’ and, ‘Glass half full,’ really kind of percolate to the top and shape who you really are.”